site.btaNational Tourism Board Deputy Chair Zahariev Calls for Establishment of Brand Bulgaria Agency or Directorate in Council of Ministers

Deputy Chairman of the National Tourism Board Martin Zahariev said that there is a need to create a directorate, a specialized administration of the Council of Ministers, which would deal with Brand Bulgaria. The issue of Brand Bulgaria cannot be solved in any other way than by subordination and imperatively by the Council of Ministers, with a political decision and a person - a deputy prime minister to manage the process with or without a portfolio, Zahariev said at the BTA-organized BG Tourism - Summer 2025 forum at the Grand Hotel Pomorie in the city on Sunday. 

In Zahariev's words, such an agency should aim to coordinate all ministries and agencies in Bulgaria “that promote the name of our country beyond Kalotina in uniform standards, with uniform guidelines, so that we have a definitively clear.... message to the world”.

This is not only an effort of tourism, but also of the Bulgarian Investment Agency, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; it is a poly-thematic, ultraintegral process that can only be coordinated by a Deputy Prime Minister or a Prime Minister. And we have to solve this issue with the help of the BTA," Zahariev said.

He also stressed the need for partnership between the government, local authorities and businesses in the field of tourism. This is the only working recipe when the three authorities - the money power, the state power and the local power are at the same table and have divided the responsibilities but also the budgets, Zahariev said.

Zahariev also stressed the need to listen to the business community on what the national tourism portal should look like.

The media's systemic mistake is the so-called self-censorship in Bulgarian media at all levels for not mentioning the names of commercial companies and the tourism sector in particular for regulatory reasons, Zahariev said, calling for a joint meeting in the BTA on this issue. In this regard, the BTA Director General reminded that the Agency has been publishing its economic information with the names of the companies for the fourth year now. "So far, we have not had any problem in applying any law," the BTA director general said, adding that smaller media outlets have followed the Agency's example.